(Forgive me if this is not the best place to post since it is hardware focused. Please move if it's appropriate.)

I am attempting to narrow down which Puppy to use on an old laptop (see below). I am still learning about Puppy but I've been mostly focusing on the Wary distros. I've read in a couple places that Wary is focused on older hardware but would love more official confirmation of this. My ultimate goal is to have this laptop sitting ready when we have overnight guests so they can get online....that's all I'm asking of it.

I can run a LiveCD session of Wary 5.1.4. My wireless adapter didn't work but I haven't tried to fix it. Everything else is very snappy and fast. I just tried to run a live session of Wary 5.5 and after the startup sequence, I get a black screen with a blinking cursor. When this happens, should I take that to mean it won't work and abandon it? I have an iso of Slacko as well that didn't work.

As I mentioned, Wary 5.1.4 will run but would like suggestions on others to try based on my hardware spec. It is currently running Lubuntu but it hangs and lags a bit when I know it can be faster.

I am still learning about Puppy but I've been mostly focusing on the Wary distros. I've read in a couple places that Wary is focused on older hardware but would love more official confirmation of this.

In terms of speed, Wary would probably be your best option, however, after poking around a bit, it looks like your wireless device will be somewhat of a challenge. I was able to find this thread concerning a possible solution, just click the link in the third post, from shariebeth. Make sure your device has the same chipset before you proceed!

Another option would be to try out other versions such as Lucid 5.2.8, precise 5.6.1 or 5.7.1 or Slacko and see if there is native support for your device. They might have more "weight" to them but nothing like Lubuntu, I would imagine.

As far as PAE or non-PAE, I'm not sure but I would think PAE would do fine. Someone else on the fourm might have more (and better) information regarding this.

Hope this helps...

Regards..._________________Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ loves and cares about you most of all!

Thank you for the suggestions. I knew hardware this old would be a challenge and may be a losing battle.

I've also possibly discovered that my wireless USB adapters (an Edimax and a TP-Link) require a kernel version of 3.0+ to be supported natively, so that creates a direct conflict with my effort (USB adapter needs a newer kernel, rest of the hardware needs something older). I've tried installing drivers without success with 5.1.4 and BrowserLinux though I'm not savvy with installing anything manually with any flavor Linux. It possible that operator error was the reason the install didn't work.

I'll continue to research but I'm coming to the realization that this hardware may not be worth the effort.

Curious kernel demands of that wifi..do you happen to know what prevents it building on an older kernel?. I bought a cheap and cheerful ralink rt2070 based one off ebay and it came with drivers that built ok on a 2.6.24 kernel. Might be one of those occasions in Linux when a few bob on hardware can save a lot of headaches.
I have a feeling that older celeraons are on the non PAE list but if it works then ignore that.

Taking into consideration the machine itself its more puppy 4 stuff... I have a couple of pentium 3's and that era of distro seem to fit the bill nicely. I have Lucid which is ok too but by no means essential.

I've also possibly discovered that my wireless USB adapters (an Edimax and a TP-Link) require a kernel version of 3.0+ to be supported natively, so that creates a direct conflict with my effort (USB adapter needs a newer kernel, rest of the hardware needs something older).

I have an Edimax EW-7811Un USB wireless adapter here and it won't work in Wary 5.5 but it does work in Racy 5.5 which has a 3.0.x series kernel. I don't have any machines with Celeron processors at the moment, only Pentium 4 and Pentium M, but it is certainly worth trying Racy or some of the other more recent Puppies. If they will run they may be a tiny bit slower than Wary on your hardware, but being able to get on to the internet is essential I'm sure._________________Oscar in England

I have an Edimax EW-7811Un USB wireless adapter here and it won't work in Wary 5.5 but it does work in Racy 5.5 which has a 3.0.x series kernel. I don't have any machines with Celeron processors at the moment, only Pentium 4 and Pentium M, but it is certainly worth trying Racy or some of the other more recent Puppies. If they will run they may be a tiny bit slower than Wary on your hardware, but being able to get on to the internet is essential I'm sure.

Do you think Racy 5.5 is even worth burning the ISO to CD when Wary 5.5 would not boot at all? I got a black screen with blinking cursor. I would have thought that they are similar enough to get a similar result.

Curious kernel demands of that wifi..do you happen to know what prevents it building on an older kernel?. I bought a cheap and cheerful ralink rt2070 based one off ebay and it came with drivers that built ok on a 2.6.24 kernel. Might be one of those occasions in Linux when a few bob on hardware can save a lot of headaches.
I have a feeling that older celeraons are on the non PAE list but if it works then ignore that.

Taking into consideration the machine itself its more puppy 4 stuff... I have a couple of pentium 3's and that era of distro seem to fit the bill nicely. I have Lucid which is ok too but by no means essential.

Only the opensource driver is limited to the 3 kernel. The one that compiles on older kernels is the one from ralink themselves. I have built another of theirs in the past and it works just fine (the cd with the dongle i mentioned)
If you are unsure just post a request perhaps in the hardware section of this forum ..give the driver link and version of puppy you want it for.

Non PAE ... older mobile non pentiums, early celerons, early AMD... you can usually find a list floating around the internat giving more precise information.

Do you think Racy 5.5 is even worth burning the ISO to CD when Wary 5.5 would not boot at all? I got a black screen with blinking cursor. I would have thought that they are similar enough to get a similar result.

Personally I take the view that burning ISO's to CD's doesn't take very long and doesn't cost very much so I would say it is always worth a try and fun to experiment. I believe Racy also has a different Xorg from the one in Wary as well as a different kernel, so that might help. You can try with some different boot parameters too perhaps._________________Oscar in England

A PAE version, of a Puppy version, is for computers that have more than 4GB of ram.If you try a version of Puppy that has option of PAE or non-PAE, choose the non-PAE.

Thank you for the clarification, hence my disclaimer: "As far as PAE or non-PAE, I'm not sure but I would think PAE would do fine. Someone else on the fourm might have more (and better) information regarding this."

Another brilliant idea I just had would be to try Dpup Exprimo
It has lots more bells and whistles than Wary or Racy ( including frisbee ) and yet runs nicely on older hardware. It is available in different kernel versions ( 3.x and 2.6.x ) and in fact I recall my Edimax worked in the 2.6.x kernel version ( Exprimo 5.X.15 ) which was the best one on my older P4 SiS machine._________________Oscar in England

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